


Our Love Is A Story Worth Telling

by FandomsMoments



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F, embarrassed charity, soft vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 17:45:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18596290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomsMoments/pseuds/FandomsMoments
Summary: “And then, one day, a beautiful princess turned up in the village. She was a vet, you know.She had secret powers that meant she could talk to animals in their own language.And then all the men and all the women all fell in love with her.”(a short follow up)





	Our Love Is A Story Worth Telling

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think <3

_“Charity”_ Vanessa hisses, as she watches her girlfriend trip over as she makes her way out from behind the _Punch and Judy_ box with a sheepish look on her face. The kids had run off to play so Charity was free to escape. 

Charity doesn’t seem to notice her voice, choosing to squeeze her hip as she passes her. 

“Charity, _what_ was that?” Marlon asks, stepping in front of Charity, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. 

“What was what, Marlon?” Charity feigns innocence. 

“The completely unrealistic puppet version of myself” Marlon leans forward, smirk pulling at his lips. 

Vanessa has to stop her own smile from turning up because, thinking about it, Charity’s little Marlon impression was rather funny. 

“Clever wasn’t it?” Charity shrugs. Smirking smugly. “I was thinking a big, juicy Paddy and Marlon affair for the story but it wasn’t PG enough for the little’uns.”

Marlon scoffs and Charity cackles in response. 

“Charity!” vanessa tries, again. She steps forward, nudging her fiancée’s arm. 

“Yeah, babe?” 

“You’ve still got one of the puppets on your hand” Vanessa replies, a teasing smile on her face.  
“Not your best look.” 

Charity’s comically furious face tells her it’s not what she was expecting as she throws the puppet carelessly to its home. She shoots vanessa a glare and walks to the nearest _empty_ bench. 

Vanessa follows, stifling a laugh when faith pushes Charity’s arm with a humorous scream on her way to the pub doors. 

She sits herself on the bench top beside Charity, one leg hanging freely while the other rests by Charity’s side. 

“Well, that wasn’t mortifying at _all_ ” Vanessa jokes. 

“Yeah, well.” Charity starts. She moves her hand to Vanessa’s skin, smoothing her thumb over her ankle that sends a subtle shiver from her neck to the base of her spine. 

“A princess _and_ a vet?” Vanessa asks. 

“Yep.” Charity mutters, leaning forward so her left arm is resting across Vanessa’s knees. “One that can talk to animals in their own language. You remember Voldemort the snake, right?” 

“Mmm” Vanessa hums. “Wasn’t expecting the whole village to learn about it though”  
Charity’s hand moves under her jeans, fingers smoothing over her calf instead. 

“Hey” Charity suddenly bursts out. “Look, I needed a story didn’t I? Wasn’t exactly planning on going all theatre for the little whiny humans of the village was I? And i did call you a _beautiful_ princess, there’s a compliment in all that embarrassment you know, and the kids _loved_ it.”

Vanessa laughs, reaching to Charity’s hand that is scratching at her knee, lightly. 

“I guess so, and in this story, all of the men and women fell in love with me so, I guess it can’t be that bad.” 

Charity looks up with a glare.  
“Well, got some truth to it that, doesn’t it?” She rolls her eyes to soften the adoring tone in her voice. 

“Yeah” Vanessa whispers, leaning forward, closer to Charity.  
“Still a bit annoyed that I was the brunt of a huge joke though, I’m not going to live that one down am I?” 

“Babe!” Charity huffs. “You’re not the one who had to go all broad northern grandma on everyone for the sake of little ears.” 

Vanessa breathes out a laugh and raises Charity’s hand to her lips, kissing it loudly.  
“Couldn’t let Chas down, could you? Besides, you enjoyed that really, I could tell.” 

“No” Charity replies, frowning. “A’ve gone soft.”

“Pretty talented, if you ask me” Vanessa murmurs. 

“I didn’t ask” Charity enthuses. She gets up then, hands at Vanessa’s knees, she leans forward and kisses her softly for a moment. Long enough for someone, somewhere to tell them to get a room. 

“I’m gonna go help serve” Charity winks. 

*

It’s late. Charity had finished behind the bar, Vanessa picked the boys up from daycare and fed them their tea - cooking for herself, Charity and Noah too. One episode of _paw patrol_ turned into six when they couldn’t find the remote to turn the tv off and say that the “tv fairies” switched it off for the night so it was time to sleep. 

Johnny slept quickly at the late hour, she didn’t even get to finish the book she had started to read him. She knows he prefers Charity to read to him anyway. He probably slept from boredom. She can’t do the voices like Charity can. 

Thinking of Charity, Vanessa moves to Moses’ room to see if she needed any help getting the much hyper toddler off to dreamland. Moses is built on energy, he could talk for Yorkshire if he really wanted to and it’s no different even at 10PM. 

Creeping across the landing, she stops at Moses’ room and peeks around the door. One corner of the room holds Moses’ night light that leaves a soft purple glow along his bed. His nose is just poking up from his duvet covers that are pulled as far up as he can get them. Charity is kneeling by his new “big boy bed”. 

“What story then Moses? it’s late enough already, you need to catch some Z’s so you grow big and strong.” 

Moses rolls onto his side and Vanessa can see his eyebrows pull up in concentration, just like Charity’s do. 

“The one you tell every bedtime” Moses replies, sleepily. 

Vanessa was just about to leave. Moses seemingly complying well with night time orders. She pauses when Charity taps Moses’ nose and begins her story. A very familiar story. 

“One day, a beautiful princess turned up in the village. She was a vet, you know.” Charity explains, softly.  
“Golden hair, bright blue eyes and a kind, kind smile.” 

Charity’s voice is quiet but so expressive, she’s glad johnny has her too, to be the fun mum, the _funny_ mum. 

“She had secret powers that meant she could talk to animals in their own language.” Charity continues.  
“Snakes, especially” Charity hisses, wriggling her arm and tickling Moses’ chest who squeals.  
“Shh, now, this vet. She’s quite the charmer. all the men and all the women all fell in love with her, it’s another one of her secret powers you see. One day though, she met a woman who made her laugh but, she was very very grumpy.” 

“Like Paddy in mornin’” Moses whispers. 

“Even grumpier” Charity explains. “But this princess vet made her less grumpy over time, she made her laugh too. Grumpy woman fell in love with the vet, even if she did find it strange that she talked to snakes.” 

“More now?” Moses asks.

“Yes, there’s more to this story now. Grumpy woman almost lost the princess vet, it scared her a lot so, she decided to ask her to marry her so they could be together forever, to the grumpy woman’s surprise, the princess vet said yes, and she couldn’t believe her luck.” 

“Then what?” Moses mumbles, sleep overtaking him. 

“The rest of the story hasn’t finished yet, but I think grumpy woman is planning to give the princess vet a fairytale wedding and maybe one day, a castle for them to live in.” 

There’s no reply from Moses, Charity leans to kiss his forehead. “Night little man.” 

Vanessa slips out of the room and makes her way to hers and Charity’s. Her heart feels it may have swelled just a little, and her eyes sting a tad. It’s only a story. 

Charity eventually makes her way back, after a bathroom trip. Vanessa is in bed, pyjama clad, hair down and fresh faced. She pats the space to her left as Charity pulls her night dress over her head. 

“Johnny get to sleep alright?” Charity asks, slipping under the covers and tangling her cold legs with Vanessa’s, hugging her for warmth like she does every night. 

“Yeah, out like a light. It were a bit late for him, didn’t even need a story.” Vanessa explains, wrapping her arms more comfortably around Charity’s middle. 

“Moses actually slept quite quickly, just a little story and he nodded off.” 

“Mm?” Vanessa hums, pressing her lips to Charity’s collarbone and then her neck.  
“What was the story about?” She asks.

She has to stop herself from smiling against Charity’s skin. The butterflies in her tummy fluttering erratically.  
Charity Dingle, uttering their love story in a fairytale setting to not only the villagers but also her son, on more than one occasion, even adding to the story as their real life story unfolds. 

“Oh jus’ one of those animal books he has, got a lion on it” 

“Oh” Vanessa breathes, turning on her side. She looks to Charity’s eyes. Amazing she calls them. They’re vibrant in the soft yellow glow from the beside lamp. She leans to kiss the corner of her mouth.

“So, it involves a lion?” 

Charity squints in confusion. “Yes, Vanessa, what’s got you interested in a children’s book? I’m starting to think you’ve lost your marbles a bit.”

Vanessa shrugs, unsure if Charity will eventually catch on.  
“Did it involve a snake by any chance?” 

“A _sna-_ ” Charity begins to question.

Her eyes grow comically wide and then she’s turning over, limbs untangling from Vanessa’s.  
Vanessa doesn’t keep their bodies apart though. She leans against the warmth of Charity’s back and cranes her neck just to see the light blush on Charity’s cheeks peeking through the gaps of her hair.  
She gets a huff in response.

“Eavesdropping now, are we?” Charity mumbles in annoyance. 

“Didn’t realise you’d told that story before, Charity” she replies, kissing her shoulder. 

Charity sighs, but she reaches for Vanessa’s hand anyway, pulling it down so her arm is wrapped around her middle again.

“Moses refused all of his books one night, he was being a nightmare. Offered to tell him a special story, sort of made it up on the spot. Little tyke loved it so, it’s become his go to.”  
Charity’s voice is quiet, almost abashed in its tone. 

“It’s sweet” Vanessa whispers, against Charity’s skin. 

Charity scoffs in response.

“No, I just- i mean that I loved hearing... Charity help me out here a little. It _is_ sweet.” 

Charity turns in Vanessa’s arms so she’s glaring, softly. It only lasts for a few seconds though before they both laugh and Charity is burying her face into Vanessa’s neck as she groans out in embarrassment.  
“You know, if you mention this to anyone I will not speak to you for an entire month.” Charity declares, teeth nipping pleasantly at her neck that she’s sure is supposed to be threatening. 

She allows a moment to let charity smother her in affection, even if it is to avoid her gaze. The lips at her neck are welcomed for their warmth and gratifying feel. 

“Our secret Charity, I promise.” 

“Good” Charity replies, lifting her head so their eyes finally meet.  
Her blush is still evident even in its lightness and Vanessa is covertly proud of herself for bringing out this rare, bashful side to her wife to be. 

“You gonna kiss your princess then?” Vanessa questions, assured in her own ego in this moment. 

“You are _not_ milking that nickname, I mean it vanessa I refuse to even peck your cheek if you insist on being calle-“ 

Charity’s voice muffled when her lips are engulfed by Vanessa’s in a bid to shut up. 

Eventually humming into the surprise yet incomparably, perfect kiss, Charity turns to cover Vanessa’s body with her own and she whispers “rude!” into Vanessa’s ear.


End file.
